Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling system operational management, and more particularly to information handling system physical component maintenance through near field communication device interaction.
Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems are often disposed in data centers that maintain a suitable environment for the systems to efficiently run, such as an environment with adequate power and cooling resources. A typical data center includes multiple racks that each supports multiple information handling systems. Generally, information handling systems interface with each other through a network defined by network addresses that interconnect through switching and routing devices. A typical data center has information handling systems that perform a variety of functions, such as servers that support websites and information storage. Often, the functions performed within a data center are distributed across multiple information handling systems with virtualization and related techniques. For example, a particular website with a defined Internet Protocol (IP) address is presented by a virtual machine flexibly executing on various physical information handling systems in a data center so that physical processing resources are efficiently utilized. Generally, communication with virtual network addresses is supported by mapping of the virtual systems to their physical resources.
The increased size of data centers and the increased use of virtualization have made management of physical information handling system resources more difficulty. For instance, failure of an end user application, such as a website or database, often has little relationship to any particular physical processing resource. Fortunately, if a physical resource fails virtualization typically includes fail over so that applications move from failed physical processing resources to operational processing resources. Similarly, redundant storage systems used by storage area networks and other networked based storage help to ensure that information remains accessible through back-up sources even if a particular physical storage device fails. Thus, data center information technology specialists are typically provided time to fix or replace failed physical resources without substantial impact on processing operations.
One difficulty faced by information technology specialists is identifying physical processing resource failures, locating the actual failed devices in a data center and properly configuring replacement devices with appropriate network and physical addressing information. Generally, management of physical resources within an information handling system is performed by a management network that parallels the data center's end user operational network. Physical devices deployed in a data center include management controllers that monitor physical operating parameters and report the parameters through the management network to a data center manager. For instance, information handling systems typically include a baseboard management controller (BMC) that provides remote power up and power down of the information handling system through an out-of-band management network. The BMC often interfaces with the management network through a chassis management controller (CMC) disposed on the rack that supports the information handling system. CMC's manage physical resources at a rack level, such as by allocating power and cooling resources to information handling systems disposed in the rack. Often, management controllers are included at very low level components to monitor operations and identify failures, such as switches, routers, power supplies, cooling fans, storage devices, etc.
Larger data centers will often have a “crash cart” that moves between racks to fix physical resources as failures occur and are reported through the management network. Indicators at racks and devices within racks provide information technology specialists with an indication of the location where repairs are needed, such as by illuminating an LED at the front and or rear of a rack. In a busy data center, ongoing maintenance may result in a good number of indicators being illuminated leading to confusion as to the physical resources in need of attention. Further, as devices in a data center are repaired and replaced, tracking an inventory of devices that are currently in use—versus originally installed—can present a substantial challenge. Replacing or installing existing devices with incompatible devices or incorrectly configured devices can result in additional failures and suboptimal data center performance.